Michael Gratz (1739-1811)

Brothers Barnard Gratz and Michael Gratz were merchants and land speculators from the Prussian occupied territory of Silesia whose commercial enterprises connected Philadelphia to port cities in other continental American colonies, the Caribbean, and Europe, and to the North American frontier.

Author »Toni Pitock, University of Delaware
Published: September 10, 2014Updated: February 10, 2015

Brothers Barnard Gratz (born Issachar Ber ca.
1737, in Langendorf, Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia; died April 20, 1801,
Baltimore, Maryland) and Michael Gratz, (born Yehiel ca. 1739, in Langendorf,
Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia; died September 8, 1811, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) were merchants and land speculators from the Prussian occupied
territory of Silesia whose commercial enterprises connected Philadelphia to port
cities in other continental American colonies, the Caribbean, and Europe, and
to the North American frontier.[1]
The Gratzes’ business interests intersected with the political upheaval of the
second half of the eighteenth century, and their own setbacks, opportunities,
and successes were often tied up, first, with the currents of the powerful but
strained British Empire and, later, the young American republic. The Gratzes
tapped into an ethnic/religious network that linked them to fellow Jews in the
local region and in other Atlantic ports. This network supported their
religious practice and reinforced their separate ethnic identity, but it also
provided an entrée into the dominant economic culture. Through their successful
commercial endeavors they gained acceptance among their Gentile contemporaries.

Long before Barnard and Michael Gratz made
their way to America, their grandfather Jonathan Bloch, a scholar and religious
leader, who was born in Cracow (or Kraków) and educated in Prague, settled in
Langendorf, Silesia. He was one of the first Jews to settle in Langendorf, and
he established several Jewish communal institutions, including a cemetery,
synagogue, and school. Jews in central and eastern Europe were invariably
defined as outsiders and were often persecuted. They usually lived in their own
homogenous, self-sustaining communities, sometimes by decree of the Christian
authorities in the territory and sometimes by choice. Jews embraced this
segregation because it provided them with a familiar system for interactions in
which they dealt almost exclusively with each other. This enabled them to
minimize ever-problematic relations with Christians. While Jews generally lived
in insular communities, they still depended on the hospitality of host
territories. At best, authorities imposed harsh restrictions and charged
onerous taxes in exchange for communal autonomy. Territorial lords regulated
many aspects of Jews’ lives including the kind of work in which they could
engage. They also curtailed the growth of Jewish communities by restricting the
number of marriage licenses that families could obtain for their sons, which
forced younger sons to move away from home. Jews were subject to other onerous
burdens such as excessive taxes and, often, they were forced to wear
distinctive clothing that identified them as Jews. Circumstances improved or
deteriorated intermittently according to the whims of rulers and their
officials. Thus the status of Jews was perpetually tentative.[2]

Silesia had been under the control of
various noble houses and independent duchies since the Middle Ages, and
culturally many of its inhabitants drew closer to inhabitants in the German and
Czech lands by the early modern period. By the time the Gratzes’ grandfather
arrived in Langendorf during the seventeenth century, the region had come under
Austrian Habsburg rule. Although Jonathan Bloch held a leadership position in
Langendorf’s Jewish community, his son, Shlomo Zalman, was not shielded from
the harsh restrictions that constrained the lives of Jews. He made his way to
the Polish village of Grodzisko (presently known as Grodzisk Wielkopolski or
Grätz in German) west of Posen toward the end of the seventeenth century in
search of better conditions. Not long after his move, however, the region was
subject to foreign invasion and Jews became victims of persecution in the midst
of the subsequent upheaval. Those who survived the devastation fled. Shlomo
Zalman returned to Langendorf some time after the turn of the eighteenth
century.[3]

Shlomo Zalman and his wife (her name,
parentage, and background are unknown) had four sons and two daughters. Barnard
and Michael were the youngest. Their family observed Jewish laws and
traditions, and their sons received a Jewish education that was oriented toward
the study of Torah. Shlomo Zalman and his wife died in the 1740s leaving
Barnard, Michael, and their unmarried sister, Leah, in the care of their elder
brothers Hayim and Jonathan. The two older brothers were purveyors of alcoholic
beverages, Hayim in Tworog, and Jonathan in Gross-Strehlitz, both towns near
Langendorf. This was one of a few profitable occupations open to Jews. The
exclusive and expensive license was only available through the patronage of a
local count. The license allowed the dealer to supply alcohol in a given area
and protected him from competition.[4]
Hayim and Jonathan’s relatively secure livelihood obligated them to provide not
only for their dependent siblings but also for their extended family, which
included the family of their sister Gittel. She was married to her cousin
Jonathan Bloch, who had several siblings.[5]
The bonds between the Gratzes and the Blochs were especially important for
Barnard and Michael Gratz when they eventually left Langendorf.

Just as trying conditions caused the
Gratzes’ grandfather and father to migrate, they also gave rise to the family’s
dispersal. The Gratzes’ cousins joined the steady trickle of central European Jews making
their way westward at the time. Sometime during the 1740s they departed
Silesia, which had been conquered by Prussian forces under Frederick the Great
in 1742 and incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. Solomon Bloch settled in
London and established a mercantile business there, and his brother Jacob made
his way to Philadelphia, each adopting the Anglicized surname Henry along the
way. Solomon and Jacob Henry’s move paved the way for their younger cousins
Barnard and Michael Gratz, who followed them a few years later.

Barnard Gratz left Langendorf in 1748. He
traveled to London via Holland. No surviving source accounts for the time he
spent in London. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1754 and took over his cousin
Jacob Henry’s position as clerk to Jewish merchant David Franks. Barnard
arrived in Philadelphia equipped with a knowledge of English and bookkeeping
skills. It is likely that Solomon Henry organized a clerkship for him or that
he received some training in Henry’s own business establishment during
his sojourn in London. Michael left Langendorf for Berlin in 1750. He found
employment there with Itzik and Moses Ries, descendants of the founder of
Berlin’s Jewish community and owners of one of the oldest Jewish businesses in
the city. By 1752, Michael was on the move again: first to Amsterdam, then
London, and from there to the East Indies.[6]
There is little information about Michael Gratz’s time in the East Indies other
than that he left London in about 1753 and that in 1759 he joined Barnard in
Philadelphia.

Adverse economic, political, and social
conditions in Silesia contributed to the Gratzes’ departure and the consequent
dispersal of the family, but the prospect of participating in a vibrant
Atlantic world trade also drew them westward. Even if financial failure was
widespread among merchants operating in the Atlantic world and success was far
from certain, when the Gratzes departed Silesia they could each hope to make a
modest living as traders.

Barnard Gratz was approximately seventeen
years of age when he arrived in Philadelphia in 1754. His boss, David Franks,
was the scion of a mercantile family whose kinship trade network linked London,
New York, Philadelphia, and ports in the Caribbean. Franks, a ship-owner,
imported manufactured goods and commodities from Europe, the East Indies, and
other British colonies. He was also involved in the frontier Indian trade, land
speculation, and victualing the British Army.[7]
As a clerk working under David Franks’ wing, Gratz gained valuable technical
experience that was necessary for participating in Philadelphia’s retail
economy, Atlantic commerce, and the Indian trade. Likewise, while performing
his duties for Franks, Barnard Gratz became acquainted with a large and diverse
set of merchants and traders. Connections with associates would be critical for
conducting trade successfully because merchants and traders relied on
colleagues to extend credit and serve as agents and factors. Building
relationships of trust was, therefore, crucial for Gratz’s success. The
merchants and traders with whom he developed relationships while working for
Franks facilitated his entry into trade when he set out on his own and some of
them would remain his associates for the rest of his career.

In addition to running his dry goods business
and a shipping enterprise, much of David Franks’ attention was focused on the
western frontier when Barnard Gratz arrived in 1754. With his London-based
mercantile kin, and as the owner of a fleet of ships, David Franks was well
placed to import goods for the Indian trade and to export furs and skins. His
colleague Joseph Simon, a Jewish merchant who lived in Lancaster, extended
Franks’ chain of commercial interaction, serving as a middleman between Franks
in Philadelphia and settlers in the western reaches of the colony of
Pennsylvania. The rich agricultural lands of the mid-Atlantic attracted
settlers who pushed toward and beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The growing
population translated to an increase in the demand for manufactured goods in
these regions, which Simon was well placed to serve. Simon was also well placed
to collaborate with Franks in the Indian trade on the frontier, which was
spurred by a high demand for furs and deer skins in Europe. Traders who
penetrated deep into the frontier to trade with Indians exchanged imported
goods for furs and skins, which they provided to their eastern creditors. In
1754, the year Barnard arrived, burgeoning western settlement and the
flourishing Indian trade exacerbated tensions between the British and French
who vied for dominance in the region. The Seven Years War, or the French and
Indian War as it was called in North America, erupted soon after, largely
bringing Franks’ western ventures to a standstill for the time being.[8]
Nevertheless, through his connections to Franks and Simon, the west would be
central in Gratz’s future endeavors.

Barnard Gratz earned £21 per year working
for Franks, roughly equivalent to $1,400 in today’s terms, plus board and
lodging. As a clerk, Barnard managed the daily transactions in Franks’ counting
house.[9] While working for Franks, Barnard also
engaged in small ventures of his own, selling goods that he had obtained on
credit or purchased with money that he had earned. In 1759, having gained
sufficient experience and having formed connections with some of Franks’
colleagues, Gratz left Franks’ employ and opened his own shop in Philadelphia
selling dry goods, textiles, household good, and jewelry that he had ordered
from Moses Franks, David Franks’ London-based brother.[10]
Coincidentally, Michael had returned to London from the East Indies in 1758 and
Barnard suggested that Michael take over the position as Franks’ clerk. When
Michael arrived in 1759, Barnard was about 22 years of age and Michael was 20.

As Barnard had learned during his years as
Franks’ clerk, trade was unpredictable and fraught with risk. Prices of goods,
shipping, and insurance fluctuated; goods spoiled before they could be sold;
and more cataclysmic events resulted in significant losses, such as when ships
sank or when Indians attacked horse trains, as occurred on the Pennsylvania
frontier in 1754.[11]
Merchants were also vulnerable to unscrupulous or unlucky colleagues. One
person’s loss impacted his colleagues since commerce connected a chain of
associates. Thus when Barnard invited his younger brother to join him in
Philadelphia, he warned Michael that he was poor and would not be able to
support him, as his own future was far from assured. As a new merchant, Barnard
could not take Michael on as a partner, and certainly not as a dependent. He
recommended that Michael follow in his footsteps and spend two or three years
in Franks’ employ learning the business. He also suggested that just as he
himself had done, Michael could do a little business on the side if he saved
some of his earnings. Michael arrived in Philadelphia with a good deal of vigor
and enthusiasm, however. Judging by the way in which he conducted his affairs
before leaving London and when he arrived in Philadelphia, Michael’s venture in
the East Indies must have yielded some success. Prior to his voyage he wrote a
will leaving approximately £150 sterling (about $7,000 today) to his relatives,
and he left goods with his cousin Solomon Henry to sell. He also brought a
cargo of goods with him to Philadelphia, and immediately began to sell the
rings, hats, silver and gold buttons, and other items he brought to locals.
While working for David Franks, he continued to import goods and over the
course of the next three years he sent cargoes on vessels bound for Georgia,
New York, Halifax, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts, and London.[12]

When the Gratzes arrived in Philadelphia
they knew few people but they formed relationships with Jewish peers, most of
whom were also newcomers from the German lands who trickled into the Philadelphia
area during the 1750s and 1760s.[13]
The Gratzes’ connections with their coreligionists fulfilled two needs: they
relied on one another for religious and social purposes but they also
cooperated in business activities. Many of the Gratzes’ Jewish associates owned
small shops in the towns and rural areas surrounding Philadelphia. They would
acquire goods that they needed for their stores from their Philadelphia
colleagues and provide them with products that were produced locally in return.
When he arrived and began selling the goods he brought with him, most of
Michael Gratz’s customers were part of this group.[14]
It was this cohort who founded Philadelphia’s Jewish community and who formed
the Gratzes’ social circle. This network continued to expand to include Jews in
other colonies. Nevertheless, while the Gratzes continued to deal with some
members of their Jewish cohort in business, they did not limit their set of
business associates to Jews. They developed their reputations, built up credit,
and cooperated extensively with non-Jews in a range of ventures too.

As the Gratz brothers were establishing
their business in the 1760s, they sometimes collaborated with each other and
sometimes invested in ventures independently. In addition to selling imports to
local customers, they also sent goods in the care of factors to North American
and Caribbean ports and served as agents in Philadelphia for their colleagues.
The Gratzes’ economic dealings with Captain Isaac Martin illustrate their
complicated business arrangements. Martin took some goods to Savannah, Georgia,
in 1760, including tobacco owned by both him and Barnard, hats that belonged to
Barnard, and other unnamed goods that were joint investments by Barnard and
Michael. In return, Martin sent the brothers 70 barrels of rice in payment
because he could not get a bill of exchange. Martin also shipped skins to
Philadelphia for the Gratzes to sell on his behalf. They worked with a number
of other agents including Captain Thomas Bruce, who took a cargo of goods for
Barnard to Savannah, Preston Payne, and the partnership of Morre and Finlay in
Quebec.[15]
The surviving papers provide only a few hints about how they formed these
connections. It was Martin, for example, who introduced the Gratzes to Thomas
Bruce and it is likely that connections with one associate led to introductions
to others. Some of these relationships were short-lived and involved
transactions consisting of one or two consignments, but the Gratzes also formed
associations that endured for a longer period of time. One of these
associations was with David Franks’ Lancaster colleague, Joseph Simon, who
began using Barnard as his agent in Philadelphia as soon as Gratz left Franks’
employ in 1759. The Indian trade was just reviving at that time, and as Simon
received furs and skins from traders in the Ohio Valley, he sent these to
Gratz, whose duties included checking and distributing the peltry to Simon’s
other colleagues in Philadelphia and sending them overseas. Gratz also
coordinated the transportation of goods from Franks to Simon in Lancaster and
procured imported goods and commodities for Simon to sell in his stores and
merchandize to provide to Indian traders on the frontier.[16]
Michael soon became involved increasingly in these duties too.

Through their involvement in the Indian
trade, the Gratzes became associated with George Croghan and William Trent, two
of the most active Indian traders in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Croghan
had spent much time on the frontier since his immigration from Ireland in 1741.
He established a series of trading posts along the Ohio River and he could
speak the Delaware and Iroquois languages. Because of his excellent
relationships with the Indians with whom he traded, William Johnson,
superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern District, made Croghan his
deputy. His official responsibilities included presenting the Crown’s plans for
the region to the western Indians, and working with the military to secure
former French forts. These duties enabled him to advance his personal concerns:
he would take large quantities of trade goods with him to sell to the Indians
when on official business.[17]
David Franks and Joseph Simon supplied goods to Croghan for the Indian trade
and through them the Gratzes became associated with him and his partner,
William Trent. The Gratzes entered this market during the course of the 1760s,
supplying goods to Croghan, Trent, and their other colleagues on the frontier,
and receiving and shipping overseas the skins they had procured.[18]
However, just as their western trade prospects began to look promising, the
trade was once again interrupted. Shortly after the Seven Years’ War officially
ended, the frontier quickly became embroiled in another war with Indians,
Pontiac’s War.

With commercial prospects on the western
frontier greatly diminished, the Gratzes sought new opportunities. They
nurtured relationships in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island, both of
which were home to established Jewish communities. Their new colleagues introduced
them to associates further afield and they continued to expand their network.
It was through Isaac Adolphus, their new colleague in New York, and his brother
Moses Adolphus in Jamaica, that they became associated with Elias and Isaac
Rodriguez Miranda, Jewish merchants in Curaçao who also had contacts in
Jamaica. The three parties established a partnership whereby they served as
each other’s agents, earning a commission on all business that they handled for
the others.[19]

Following the Seven Years War, the North
American economy was extremely sluggish, particularly in the dry goods sector.[20]
Economic stagnation coupled with the imposition of the Sugar Act, Stamp Act,
and Currency Act brought economic hardship but the Gratzes managed to stay
afloat. They even added their signatures to the 1765 Non-Importation Agreement in
protest of the Stamp Act, despite the impact that interruption of trade with
England would have on their business activities in Philadelphia. The Gratzes’
business ventures in the West Indies, including their partnership with the
Rodriguez Miranda brothers, and their commercial interactions with Isaac
Adolphus’s brother Moses in Jamaica, bolstered their earnings for a while. For
several years, the Gratzes sent local produce including apples, potatoes,
flour, butter, and Indian corn to the Caribbean. Political events led, once
again, to complications, however, and gradually slowed their transactions with
their Curaçao colleagues. Toward the end of the decade, tough competition in
the West Indies market diminished their returns and their business there
petered out. However, they continued to do business in North American ports,
including New York, Newport, New Orleans, and Quebec, where they shipped an
ever-expanding array of goods, including nails, scythes, sugar, molasses,
cotton, soap, coffee, pitch and tar.[21]

When the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763,
the French ceded almost all of New France to Britain. In spite of the fact that
King George III had signed the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which had prohibited
settlement beyond the Appalachians, acquisition of this territory signaled an
opportunity for merchants and traders like the Gratzes. In the second half of
the 1760s, the Indian trade and land speculation showed signs of recovering.
With large numbers of settlers moving westward, speculators rushed to purchase
immense tracts of land with the intention of surveying the land, dividing it,
and reselling smaller plots to settlers at a profit. Speculators hoped that the British government
would cease enforcing the ban on settlement. Furthermore, they expected the
Illinois Country to be exempted from the ban because French settlers were
already living along the Mississippi River. Even while they were conducting
inter-colonial trade, the Gratzes began to participate in this western land
rush by serving as land agents for several people including George Croghan, his
half-brother, Captain Edward Ward, who lived in Pittsburgh, and William Murray.
They earned commissions on the plots that they sold. In 1765, they joined a
group of twenty-two investors who were interested in purchasing land along the
Mississippi River. The plan faltered for a while, but the Gratzes found
opportunities to purchase their own land beginning in 1767 when Michael
acquired a plot together with Levy Andrew Levy in Bedford, Pennsylvania.[22]
They also began supplying goods to western traders, including George Croghan,
William Trent, and another associate, William Murray, who had stores in
Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres in the Illinois Country. They soon set up a branch
of their business in Pittsburgh, the center of the fur trade, in order to more
efficiently supply their colleagues. Because of the importance of their western
concern, Barnard or Michael would spend considerable time in the growing
western Pennsylvania community.[23]

Having come through an erratic economic
period and with their business prospects looking up, the Gratz brothers, about
29 and 31 years of age, respectively, formalized their collaboration in 1768 by
forming the partnership B. and M. Gratz.[24]
The partnership boosted their ability to manage their affairs, which involved a
host of associates in a variety of locations. For the rest of their careers,
one brother usually stayed in Philadelphia to handle matters locally while the
other travelled elsewhere to oversee business. In this vein, Barnard Gratz left
Michael in Philadelphia and embarked on a journey to London in 1769. The reason
for Barnard’s trip was that the Gratzes’ cousin, Solomon Henry, who had managed
some of their affairs in London for them, had told them that he had resolved
not to engage in any business outside of London because he had suffered
significant losses. The Gratzes therefore sought to build relationships with
other merchants in London and thereby expand their transatlantic trade.[25]
Finding suppliers in London was especially important for the Gratzes at this
juncture because Benjamin Franklin had departed for the British capital in 1768
as the representative of a group of land speculators – the Vandalia group – to
present a proposal before the Board of Trade to open up western land for
settlement. Should the Board approve Franklin’s proposal, the Gratzes planned
to have plentiful goods available for the western trade.[26]

Among the first people that Barnard Gratz
approached in London were David Franks’ brother and son. Both were wealthy
merchants who, he expected, would provide goods for him to ship to Philadelphia.
Barnard also nursed the hope that the Franks might employ him as a broker in
America. These negotiations might have proved fruitful, given their mutual
connection to David Franks, but geopolitics interfered. With non-importation
agreements in force once again in the colonies due to growing opposition to
British imperial policies, the Franks did not want to take any risks associated
with shipping goods to the colonies. Neither were merchant captains willing to
load goods on their ships, as many vessels had been prevented from unloading
their cargoes in North American ports. After months of fruitless efforts, the
disappointed Barnard desperately wanted to return home. He implored Michael to
send money to cover the debts he had incurred in London and the cost of his
passage. He knew that leaving London without settling his debts would ruin his
reputation as a merchant. He would lose his associates’ trust and therefore his
access to their credit.

In spite of Barnard’s difficulties in
London, the Gratzes’ commercial interests were generally favorable. Michael
invested in his first vessel, the Rising
Sun, in 1770.[27]
One of the brothers was almost constantly on the road, in Williamsburg,
Lancaster, and Fort Pitt, for example, overseeing their enterprises. Their
western interests flourished. In spite of non-importation agreements, they
somehow found a way to acquire trade goods. The Gratzes and their associates
shipped more than £30,000 worth of goods to traders William Murray and James
Rumsay in Illinois between 1770 and 1773. They also supplied George Croghan,
who by 1772 was heavily indebted to the Gratzes, owing them £16,000. The
Gratzes were not Croghan’s only creditors to whom he owed a lot of money. He
was heavily indebted to a number of Philadelphia merchants. While the Gratzes’
association with him represented the potential for an enormous loss, they also
stood to gain a great deal from their relationship. Croghan owned vast
quantities of land, much of which lay beyond the Proclamation Line and was yet
to be recognized by authorities. Confirmation of his claims would enable him to
sell or transfer title to the land and thereby settle his debts. When Barnard
returned to Philadelphia from London, Benjamin Franklin and others representing
the Vandalia group continued to press Parliament to confirm their purchase of
millions of acres of land that had been negotiated with representatives of
Indian tribes in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix as reparation for losses in Indian
attacks in 1754 and 1763. The group was a consortium of Pennsylvania merchants,
including the Gratzes’ Jewish colleagues David Franks and Joseph Simon, and
their more recent associates George Croghan and William Trent, who had lost
goods in these attacks. In addition to Benjamin Franklin, the consortium
included co-investors and supporters, such as William Franklin and Thomas
Walpole, a member of parliament. George Croghan’s financial wellbeing depended
on the scheme, and, as his creditors, the Gratzes were interested in its
success.[28]

Expectations that the British government
would confirm the grant and allow a new colony to be founded revitalized the
plan that had been hatched in 1765 to purchase land in Illinois.[29]
The Illinois group, which included the Gratzes, dispatched William Murray to
negotiate with Illinois nations of Indians for land. Murray secured two grants,
one in 1773, in which the Gratzes were involved, and one in 1775. (The
investors in each grant formed two companies, the Illinois Company and the
Wabash Company, respectively.) The Illinois grant was purchased with Indian
goods.[30]

Once again obstacles arose and interfered
with the Gratzes’ business plans. Claims on land that lay west of the
Proclamation Line, including the Illinois grant and other properties that the
Gratzes’ debtor George Croghan owned in the Ohio Valley, became embroiled in
political conflict. Competing groups of speculators believed that they had
purchased the same land, leading to clashes. For example, Governor Dunmore of
Virginia began to issue land grants to veterans of the French and Indian War,
and George Washington also strove to acquire land in the “new colony.” It was
not only other speculators who challenged one another’s claims; the British
authorities did too. Fearful of conflict with Indians, the British government
took steps to prevent further colonization. In spite of the cooperation of some
Indian nations in speculation, other tribes, some of whom had previously been
dispossessed of land that was situated east of the Proclamation Line and pushed
across the Line, objected to further encroachment. Squatters, who paid no heed
to the Proclamation Line or to Indians’ rights, also complicated the situation
for speculators. Hoping to claim imminent domain, many immediately set to
improving land on which they settled. Thus, in spite of the significant sums
that the Gratzes and their associates had invested, their ownership of the land
was far from secure, especially when, in 1775, Virginians asserted that the
state of Virginia had authority over the entire Ohio Valley.[31]

The Gratzes never articulated their
position on the increasing tensions with Britain and it is likely that like
many other Americans they were of two minds. On the one hand, resistance to Britain
was in their interest as speculators, since it was the British who were
preventing speculators from confirming land grants and, consequently, from
surveying and selling the land. On the other hand, the trade embargoes, which
they had supported by signing the non-importation agreement, hurt their
interests as merchants. Scarcities of goods made it extremely difficult to
conduct trade. However, unlike many merchants in Philadelphia whose businesses
suffered during the years leading up to the Revolution, the Gratzes managed to
continue their business activities.[32]

For a while the Gratzes managed to bring in
goods for local and western markets and Barnard spent much of his time at their
store in Fort Pitt handling business there. At the time, both Pennsylvania and
Virginia claimed the region and traders, merchants, and speculators from both
colonies did business there. As owners of a store in Pittsburgh, the Gratzes
developed associations with Virginians who continued to place orders with them.
Some customers were individuals who purchased supplies that they needed for
their own purposes. The brothers also filled much larger orders. Together with
their Lancaster-based colleague, Joseph Simon, who was also Michael’s
father-in-law, the Gratzes supplied the Virginia troops that were stationed in
the Ohio Valley to deal with ongoing friction between Indians and settlers.[33]
As with other ventures, their accounts reflected profits, but collecting
payment proved to be difficult. There was a shortage of cash in the colonies
and they spent many months chasing debts. While lobbying Virginia delegates at
the 1776 Continental Congress in Philadelphia to settle debts owed by the
colony for supplies provided by the Gratzes, the brothers signed an agreement
with the Virginia delegates to provide supplies for Virginia troops fighting in
the Revolutionary War.[34]
Their relationships with Virginia authorities went further. Michael extended
loans of £10 000 to Virginia’s members of the Continental Congress. They sold
goods to individual soldiers and officers, and some of their Virginia
associates served as their agents, procuring Virginia agricultural goods,
predominantly tobacco, for the Gratzes and selling some of the Gratzes’
merchandize in Fredericksburg, Virginia.[35]

The Revolutionary War finally interrupted
the Gratzes’ and their colleagues’ western ventures but they engaged in other
enterprises during the conflict, including investing in several vessels.
Michael joined a group of Virginia associates in acquiring vessels that had
been seized from the British during the war and auctioned off in Fredericksburg
to Americans. Together with his colleague, Henry Mitchell, Michael purchased
the sloops Olive and Speedwell. Michael also had a
brigantine, Industry, under
construction at the time and co-owned Success
with Robert Morris – signer of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of
Confederation, and Constitution, and financier of the Revolutionary War – and
two other signers of the Declaration of Independence. Barnard and Michael were
shareholders in several other vessels too.[36]
They also became obliquely involved in the commissary business in which their
colleague and former employer, David Franks, served as an agent to the
contractors who supplied the British Army in America. Local suppliers and
farmers stopped selling provisions to the British, forcing them to import food
from Britain. The Continental Congress, however, permitted Franks to supply British
troops held as prisoners, at the expense of the Crown. Franks utilized the
services of many colleagues in order to fulfill the complicated task of
victualing the British and Hessian prisoners who were held in camps in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The Gratzes were responsible for
procuring the large quantities of clothing, candles, tobacco, and soap required
for the hundreds of British and Hessian prisoners.[37]

The status of land purchases in the
Mississippi Valley and several other claims that directly or indirectly
affected the Gratzes were still in abeyance. The Illinois and Wabash tracts
remained under Britain’s control until Continental forces occupied the
Northwest in 1778. At that point, Virginia took control of the region and began
to disallow claims on land that had been purchased privately. Shareholders in
the Illinois Company, in which the Gratzes had an interest, and the Wabash
Company continued to work on persuading the American government to confirm
their ownership of the land claims. Many of the investors owned shares in both
companies and combined their interests in order to lobby the government.
Barnard Gratz was made secretary of the joint operation. In hope of swaying
Congress in their favor, the group added a series of influential people to
their membership, including jurist James Wilson, Superintendent of Finance of
the United States Robert Morris, various military figures, and French
diplomats. They also began preparing to lay out towns in the western land
claims.[38]

It appeared at the beginning of the 1780s
that the Gratzes might realize profits on their land investments, but this hope
was soon dashed. The Illinois land claim offered a tantalizing opportunity for
profit, and, with American forces in control of the Northwest and signs of the
Indian trade reviving, the situation looked promising enough that the Gratzes
reopened their Pittsburgh business in 1780. They formed relationships with
officials whose roles could enhance their prospects. They took on Colonel John
Gibson, an Indian trader who took command of Ohio troops in 1781, as a partner.
The lack of specie and the instability of the Continental currency made
conducting commerce difficult and, to make matters worse, they faced difficulty
collecting payment for goods totaling £1425.16.9 in specie that they had
supplied to General George Rogers Clark’s expedition to Detroit. Virginia had
funded the expedition but refused to cover Clark’s debt to the Gratzes and
Gibson. After much effort, Virginia legislators agreed to allow payment and the
debt was finally settled with tobacco certificates in 1784.

Trade debts and uncertain western land
claims were not the Gratzes’ only difficulties. The American economy languished
following the Revolution. Scores of mid-Atlantic merchants’ businesses failed.
When the American colonies were part of the British Empire, merchants
benefitted from British policies, which granted them access to British and West
Indian goods. The end of the war brought economic strain as the British put
protectionist trade policies in place and refused to negotiate a trade
agreement with the United States. The falling value of the Continental currency
and a shortage of specie made it difficult to pay debts to overseas creditors
and the Gratzes’ ventures, like those of many other merchants, suffered.[39]
While the Gratzes struggled to call in debts and to track down debtors who
seemed to have vanished during the chaos of the war and its aftermath, they
were subject to demands and lawsuits initiated by their own creditors. By now
the Gratzes were in their late 40s and early 50s, and much of their time in the
1780s and 1790s was thus spent trying to settle their finances, sometimes via
lawsuits, and confirm their titles to western land claims. These unresolved
financial matters were linked to the business affairs of many of their longtime
associates, including David Franks and his family, Joseph Simon, George Croghan,
and a series of debtors, via companies and partnerships. Not only were they
responsible for settling their own tangled commercial affairs, but those of
George Croghan too. Croghan died in 1782 leaving unpaid debts and extensive
properties. The Gratzes were named as executors of his will.[40]

The issues relating to western land claims
remained unresolved until after the Revolution, at which time claimants hoped
to have their titles confirmed by the state and federal governments. Barnard
spent a good deal of time in Virginia moving between Williamsburg, Richmond,
and Fredericksburg trying to settle his and Michael’s land titles, and
representing others’ claims before the Virginia Assembly. Their prospects
deteriorated when, in negotiations over the Articles of Confederation, Virginia
gave up its western land claims, but only on the condition that the land be
transferred to the federal government and not to other claimants. This
disqualified the Gratzes and their colleagues’ largest claims in the West,
though they, and then their heirs, continued to argue the case for decades
until it finally collapsed in 1823.[41]
Barnard and Michael Gratz nevertheless profited from other land ventures in
Pennsylvania and western Virginia (now West Virginia and Kentucky), and they
continued to believe in the economic potential that land speculation
represented. They soon found another opportunity for indirectly speculating in
land sales by dealing in land certificates. A market in these certificates,
which had been issued by some states and the federal government to
Revolutionary War veterans as compensation for their service, had developed.
Investors bought certificates at discounted rates from veterans who needed
money and did not want western lands and then later sold the land at higher
prices to settlers.[42]

Michael and Barnard withdrew increasingly
from transacting business after the Revolutionary War era. By 1799, both had
ceased their business activities. Having received their training under the
watchful eyes of their father and uncle and their grandfather, Joseph Simon,
Michael’s two oldest sons, Simon and Hyman, took over their father’s business
activities, including many in which their uncle, Barnard Gratz, had an
interest.[43]

The Gratzes were part of the first wave of
German-Jewish immigration to the New World. This wave marked a shift in the
makeup of Jews in the Americas. Until the early eighteenth century, Sephardim –
that is, Jews of Iberian extraction who dispersed as a result of the Spanish
Inquisition and the 1492 expulsion from Spain – far outnumbered Ashkenazim in
the Atlantic world. A significant number of Sephardic Jews took advantage of
European expansion in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, seeking
opportunities in Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and, later, British colonies.[44]
Sephardic Jews and the Crypto-Jews and New Christians associated with them
forged connections that were based on family ties, religious sympathies, and
active trading collaboration.[45]
This facilitated economic activity in far-flung locations. Family members and
colleagues spread out and served as partners and agents.[46]
Merchants in Jewish communities came from families who had engaged in trade in
the Atlantic world for generations and their trade networks had long been in
operation. Philadelphia’s Jewish community developed relatively late compared
with other Jewish communities in the New World, and it was Ashkenazim (Jews of
central- and eastern-European descent) who predominated. Jews began moving from
the German lands to England, Holland, and to the colonies toward the end of the
seventeenth century. They differed culturally from Sephardic Jews and were not
easily absorbed into Sephardic networks. However, they began establishing
similar networks, emulating the patterns and strategies that Sephardim utilized
to optimize commercial opportunities.

Connections with other Jews afforded the
Gratzes an entrée into the world of commerce. Their cousins Solomon and Jacob
Henry supported their emigration and helped to train them, and the Gratzes and
Henrys continued to collaborate. After leaving David Franks employ, Jacob Henry
established a business in Philadelphia and transacted business with his
cousins; Solomon Henry served as the Gratzes’ agent in London until he met with
business difficulties.[47]
Some of the early business associations that the Gratzes developed once they
had settled in Philadelphia were extensions of Solomon Henry’s network in
London, Henry mentioned colleagues in London who shared the last name of some
of the Gratzes’ American associates, such as Adolphus, Hart, and Franks.[48]
And the Henrys introduced the Gratzes to David Franks, who had employed Jacob
Henry before Barnard’s arrival. Their connection to David Franks was especially
consequential. Franks was the scion of a prominent Jewish mercantile family
that had put down roots in the Atlantic world at around the turn of the
eighteenth century. David Franks, his father, Jacob Franks, his brothers, Moses
and Naphtali, his maternal uncles, and his paternal uncles and cousins were
dispersed in various ports and were all eminent merchants with extensive
connections throughout the Atlantic world.[49]
It was under Franks’ wing that Barnard and Michael learned about conducting
business in their new environment. Of equal importance, the Gratzes established
connections with a number of merchants and traders with whom they would
maintain long-term associations, including Lancaster, Pennsylvania, based
Jewish merchants Joseph Simon, and Levy Andrew Levy, and other German Jews who
arrived in Pennsylvania and other colonies at approximately the same time that
the Gratzes settled.

While German Jews formed the closest bonds
with one another, many of them in the region interacted extensively with their
Christian countrymen.[50]
In fact, it is likely that Joseph Simon and some of the Gratzes’ other German-Jewish
colleagues made their homes in rural towns because they could communicate with
local German settlers with ease since their mother tongue – Yiddish – was a
dialect of German. Most German speakers who came to America in the eighteenth
century came from small towns in the southwestern German lands, a region that
was relatively confessionally diverse. German Jews lived scattered in small
towns and hamlets throughout the German lands and despite widespread
anti-Jewish sentiment and legal restrictions that constrained Jews’ lives, Jews
and their Christian neighbors worked and lived in close proximity. Following
this pattern of interaction in the German lands, German Jews and their
German-Christian neighbors in Pennsylvania enjoyed considerable economic
interactions and worked together to build their communities.[51]

The Gratzes solidified their economic
relationships by marrying kin of members of their network. Barnard Gratz
married Richea Mears in 1760. She was the daughter of New York merchant Samson Mears.
Their marriage made Barnard kin to Joseph Simon’s wife, Rosa Bunn, a cousin of
Mears, whose sister married another Philadelphia colleague, Matthias Bush.[52]
By the time Barnard married Mears, he and Joseph Simon were already business
associates but the union reinforced the men’s economic connection. The two
families were brought even closer together when Michael Gratz married Joseph
Simon’s daughter Miriam in 1769. Kin networks such as these were an important
feature of Jewish Atlantic trade: they maximized trust and accountability in an
environment that was fraught with risk.

The Gratzes’ connections to their Jewish
colleagues were significant, especially when they began their careers. Because
of the amount of risk involved in commerce, trust among colleagues was critical
in the eighteenth-century business culture. With few institutions in place to
monitor and regulate associates’ behavior, merchants were cautious about doing
business with strangers; and while religious commonalities did not guarantee
honesty or diligence, the network facilitated accountability.[53]
In addition, new immigrants with no credit or connections had a hard time being
trusted, so the Gratzes’ employment with David Franks gave them time to prove
themselves and build relationships. The Gratzes’ economic network gradually
extended beyond their Jewish cohort. As they built up credit, they developed
relationships with non-Jews that were based on pragmatism and mutual economic
interests. Successful commercial transactions with Gentiles gradually rendered
religious commonality inconsequential and their business associations enabled
the Gratzes to assimilate into the broader economic culture.

There were other benefits to Jewish
networks, however. A religious network enabled Jews to perpetuate their faith
and maintain aspects of their culture. A shared heritage united the Gratzes and
their Ashkenazi immigrant cohort even when economic links between them
weakened. One element of this was their mother tongue, which was Yiddish. While
most of the Gratzes’ correspondence was in English, they sometimes communicated
in Yiddish with Jewish colleagues who, like them, had migrated to England and
the colonies. Some of their correspondents, such as Myer Josephson of Reading,
may have been more comfortable communicating in Yiddish, but it is also
possible that he was literate in Yiddish but not in English. When communicating
with one another, especially in the first years after they immigrated, they
dated Yiddish letters according to the Hebrew calendar, used Hebrew names when
addressing one another, and referred to the approach of particular significant
dates on the Hebrew calendar.[54]

When the Gratzes arrived in Philadelphia
there was no synagogue and barely the rudiments of a Jewish community. A plot of
land served as a Jewish cemetery. Nathan Levy, David Franks’ uncle and partner
who died a few months before Barnard Gratz arrived in Philadelphia, had
purchased the lot in the late 1730s when a family member had died.[55]
Philadelphia’s Jews are said to have congregated on a regular basis for prayer
in a house in Sterling Alley in the 1740s, however there are no surviving
sources that confirm this.[56]
The Gratzes nevertheless honored their faith to the best of their ability,
observing the Sabbath and holidays. Other Jews slowly trickled into the region
over the next three decades and they collaborated in performing rituals and
observing the laws that dictated Jewish life. While a synagogue is not a
requirement, in traditional observance, a quorum of ten men is necessary for
the recitation of certain prayers and so the Gratzes and their peers, who were
scattered through the region, relied on each other to attain a quorum. Myer
Josephson of Reading, for example, informed Michael Gratz that he would be
going to Lancaster to join their quorum on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)
and urged Gratz to join them. While the community was not large enough to
warrant employing functionaries, there were some members of the community who
possessed the skills needed to perform certain religious functions such as
circumcision, and ritual slaughtering of animals, without which meat would not
be kosher.[57]

It was only in 1761 that Philadelphia’s
Jewish community obtained a Torah scroll, which they borrowed from the
congregation in New York, and then in 1771, a congregation formally established
itself in a house on Cherry Alley and made arrangements to purchase a Torah scroll.
By this time, the Gratzes were fairly well established and were integral
members of the small congregation. Michael Gratz organized the purchase of
prayer books, a Yad, a pointer to be
used when reading from the Torah, and Rimonin,
coronets for the Torah, which he had crafted for the Philadelphia community.[58]
In 1773, the governing body of congregation Kahal
Kadosh Mikveh Israel assembled for a meeting with Barnard as president and
Michael as one of the board members. Each committed to contribute £10
(approximately $580 today) per year for synagogue and communal use. The size of
the community swelled during the Revolution because many members of New York’s
Jewish community moved to Philadelphia to escape the British occupation. In
1782, together with a colleague, Barnard Gratz was appointed to find a larger
building in which to worship.[59]
The Gratzes, who jointly donated £114 to the building fund for the new
synagogue, retained their leadership positions in the congregation throughout
their lives, with the next generation of Gratzes taking up the reins
afterwards.

Barnard Gratz’s brief marriage brought much
grief. His infant daughter Frances died in about 1762, and his wife Richea’s
death followed in about 1763, leaving Barnard the father of an infant daughter,
Rachel. Michael married Miriam Simon a few years later and from that point
Miriam cared for Rachel Gratz when her father traveled. Michael and Miriam
Gratz had twelve children between 1770 and 1792. Ten of their children survived
to adulthood: Frances Gratz Etting (1771-1852), Simon (1772-1839), Richea Gratz
Hays (1774-1858), Hyman (1776-1857), Sarah (1779-1817), Rebecca (1781-1869),
Rachel Gratz Moses (1783-1823), Joseph (1785-1858), Jacob (1789-1869), and
Benjamin (1792-1884).[60]
Barnard and Michael Gratz’s children followed a path similar to their parents.
The two oldest boys, Simon and Hyman, learned the business from their
grandfather, Joseph Simon, in Lancaster for whom they worked as clerks.[61]
As they gained more experience they began taking over aspects of Barnard and Michael’s business and then started their own partnership. As each of their younger
brothers came of age, Joseph, Jacob, and Benjamin became involved in the firm
Simon Gratz & Co.

Barnard’s daughter Rachel, and three of
Michael’s daughters – Frances, Richea, and Rachel – married the sons of Barnard
and Michael’s Jewish associates, knitting together their families more closely,
as Barnard and Michael had each done when they married. Of Michael’s sons, only
two married – Simon and Benjamin. Neither married a Jewish woman. There is
little information about Simon’s wife, Mary Smith, but Benjamin married Maria
Cecil Gist, the granddaughter of Colonel Christopher Gist, a friend of George Washington,
and stepdaughter of Charles Scott, the governor of Kentucky. The marriage would
have brought Benjamin into the fold of an eminent family, but one that was not
Jewish. Upon her death, Benjamin married her niece Anna Maria Boswell Shelby.[62]

As Jews living in colonial America, the
Gratzes experienced few barriers to acceptance. They could live where they
wanted and participate in all social, economic, and cultural realms. They did
have one significant impediment until the late 1780s: they were excluded from
political office due to the compulsory Christian oath that officeholders had to
swear. The United States Constitution, however, ensured religious freedom and
in 1790 Pennsylvania eliminated religious qualifications too.[63]
Having arrived as poor immigrants, Barnard and Michael Gratz climbed their way
up Philadelphia’s social ladder, joining an educated middle class. Their
children were acculturated and educated, and at least some of them went on to
earn degrees.[64]
They enjoyed friendships with their Gentile contemporaries and together with
their colleagues they were among the investors, directors, and administrators
of institutions aimed at developing the young republic’s infrastructure such as
canals, bridges, roads, and banks. They also participated in cultural and
benevolent organizations such as Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the
Athenaeum of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Institution
for the Deaf and Dumb.[65]

Several factors
made possible Barnard and Michael Gratz’s integration into Philadelphia’s
economic culture and their family’s inclusion in the dominant Anglo-Quaker culture.
When the Gratz brothers arrived in Philadelphia, global trade had reached a
high point and shaped a good deal of British policy, contributing immensely to
the social and cultural shifts that characterized the Atlantic world. At the
same time, commonalities and ethnic and communal bonds with other Jews of
central and eastern-European origin facilitated their earliest opportunities
and made possible their inclusion in an expansive network. Their native Yiddish
language also facilitated communication with German-speaking, Christian
immigrants in the region. These factors notwithstanding, the Gratzes
tenaciously learned the skills they needed to participate in commerce,
audaciously took on new challenges, and carefully nurtured their relationships
with a host of Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues.

While their
religion was a barrier to full inclusion in civic life, economic participation
did not require them to renounce or hide their faith. As Jews, Barnard and
Michael Gratz and their Jewish cohort experienced few obstacles in creating
functional, cooperative relationships with non-Jews. Their inclusion in the
economic culture opened the door to their acceptance in society and minimized their
marginal status.

[1] There is no decisive birthdate for
either brother. A Gratz biographer dates Barnard’s birth at about 1732 and
Michael’s a year or two later. See Sydney M. Fish, Barnard and Michael Gratz: Their Lives and Times (Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 1994), 1. Genealogist Malcolm Stern dates
Barnard’s birth in 1738, and Michael’s in 1740. See Americans of Jewish Descent: A Compendium of Genealogy (Cincinnati:
Hebrew Union College, 1960), 64. The year of Michael’s birth is inscribed on
his gravestone as 1739. For Yiddish names see Jonathan ben Zevi Bloch,
Langendorf, Silesia, to Barnard Gratz, Philadelphia, March 24, 1756,
Gratz-Sulzberger Papers, SC-4292, American Jewish Archives (AJA), Cincinnati,
OH (copies from Gratz Family Papers, 1753-1916, P-8, American Jewish Historical
Society, NY).

[9] See Barnard Gratz account with
David Franks, 1756-1760, McAllister Collection, Box 2, HSP; David Franks
Account Book 1757-1762, Etting Collection, HSP [This item is mislabeled. It was
Barnard Gratz’s Day Book]. For currency conversion see John J. McCusker, How Much Is That In Real Money?: A Historical
Commodity Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the economy of
the United States (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 2001).

[11] Cathy Matson, “Thoughts on the
Field of Economic History,” in The
Economy of Early America, Cathy Matson, ed. (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University, 2006), 13; Sheryllynne Haggerty, “Merely for Money?”: Business Culture in the British Atlantic 1750-1815
(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012), 2, 34-44.

[13] It is unclear how many Jews settled
in and around Philadelphia at the time. Ira Rosenwaike estimates that there were
250 Jews in Philadelphia in 1790 based on his analysis of the census. See On The Edge of Greatness: A Portrait of
American Jewry in the Early National Period (Cincinnati: American
Jewish Archives, 1985). Wolf and Whiteman number the community at one hundred
people, Edwin Wolf and Maxwell Whiteman, The
History of the Jews of Philadelphia from Colonial Times to the Age of Jackson
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1957), 53; William Pencak estimates
that there were about one hundred Jews in Pennsylvania from the 1760s until the
1790s, except during the American Revolution. See “The Jews and Anti-Semitism
in Early Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography, 126, No. 3 (2002), 366.

[45] Sephardic Jews, Crypto-Jews, and
New Christians were descendants of Iberian Jews. Following the Spanish
Inquisition and the 1492 expulsion of Jews, some Jews migrated to North and
West Africa, Ottoman lands, and parts of Western Europe where Jews were tolerated.
Others gave in to Spanish and Portuguese demands that they convert,
constituting the groups referred to as New Christians or conversos. A third
groups lived outwardly as Catholics in Spanish and Portuguese societies but
practiced Judaism secretly.

[50] Jacob Barnard advertisement for
retail trade May 25, 1959 and David Levi advertisement, July 6 1959, in Pennsylvanische Berichte, SC-5595, AJA;
Bernhard Jacob (unclear whether this is the same as Jacob Barnard) oversaw a
lottery held in Mühlbach in Lancaster County for the construction of a church.
He was later accused of mishandling funds. See DerPhiladelphische Staatsboote, August 26, 1765, in SC 5595, AJA.

[51] Mark Haberlein and Michaela
Schmolz-Haberlein, “Competition and Cooperation: The Ambivalent Relationship
Between Jews and Christians in Early Modern Germany and Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography 126, no. 3 (2002), 409-436. Haberlein and Schmoltz-Haberlein make
a strong case for a precedent of cooperative relationships in parts of Germany.
This mutually respectful and successful interaction was reproduced in
Lancaster.

[64] Hyman and his sister Richea
attended Franklin College, founded by Benjamin Franklin in Lancaster in 1787,
in its first year. Jacob graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a
Bachelor of Arts in 1807, as did Benjamin in 1811. See Leon Huhner, “Jews and
Colleges of the Original States,” PAJHS,
Vol. 19 (1910), 123; “University of Pennsylvania,” United States Gazette, July 25, 1807, Vol. XXXII, Issue 4650, 3;
“University of Pennsylvania,” Alexandria
Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political, June 04, 1811, Vol. XI, Issue
3054, 2.

Volume

Themes

Regions

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